Wednesday, August 24, 2011

A Visit to Geppi's Entertainment Museum (Part I)!!

While in Maryland for the past weekends Baltimore Comic-Con me and the boys took in one of the true "do not miss" attractions that was fortunately within walking distance of the hotel & convention center where we stayed.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum is located in downtown Baltimore's historic Camden Station, directly above Sports Legends at Camden Yards and adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards (part of the Camden Yards Sports Complex). The 16,000-square-foot privately owned pop culture museum chronicles the history of pop culture in America from the 17th century to today by showcasing newspapers, magazines, comic books, movies, television, radio and video games. It features a large and varied collection of memorabilia, including comic books, movie posters, toys, buttons, badges, cereal boxes, trading cards, dolls, figurines and many other items. The museum is owned by Steve Geppi, President and CEO of Diamond Comics Distributors and the majority of the exhibits come from Geppi's private collection. There was a special feature exhibit focusing on the 1975 Atlas Comics company founded by Martin Goodman after he sold Marvel Comics. The company didn't last long, and while some of their books were a tad goofy, Atlas books are certainly worthy of some attention, but hurry if you want to see that exhibit as I believe that it is winding down. Enjoy the sampling of photos that chronicles our trip to this really fun museum!

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!